


First arc - Of Friendship and Responsabilities

by Aurum_Ann



Series: The Canmores [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Art, Canmore, Magic, Monthly updates, Multi, Suncatcher, Teens being teens, but some extra scenes may come up, separately
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23016079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurum_Ann/pseuds/Aurum_Ann
Summary: “Alice.”It was all her granny had to say. They had had this conversation enough times by then. She could only apologise. “I know no one should come in, no one can know… But! They needed help, and it was only for some minutes!”Her grandma sighed, “Darling…”There was a pause, then, “Okay. But you’ll be the one preparing their protection.”Alice grinned. She could do that. She could have fun 𝘢𝘯𝘥 protect her friends. They wouldn’t know, and it would be okay.This first arc follows Alice Canmore as she grows and learns how to be a friend as well as how to be a good enough Canmore to take over after her Grandmother.
Relationships: Alice & Dave, Alice & Emma, Alice & Mrs. Canmore, Alice & Thomas, Dave & Emma, Dave & Thomas, Thomas & Emma
Series: The Canmores [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1654123
Comments: 2





	1. Suncatcher

**Author's Note:**

> The Greenwood twins find help from an unexpected person, but manage to befriend her.

Mrs Greenwood was a lovely woman. She believed in kindness and cookies and family nights. Her favourite mornings were the sunny ones, and her favourite evenings were the ones that made her stop and stare at the colours of the sunset. Plus, she was an extremely patient mother.

She was perfect, and her kids wanted to make her the best Mother’s Day gift ever.

That day started just like any other. Dad woke up first and took care of breakfast. Usually, pancakes were the go-to option, but he liked to bake those buttery biscuits sometimes when there was extra time. Then, the boys would start to get dressed for school. After some very awkward mornings with Mum, they decided thirteens were old enough to manage waking up by themselves, and it was working for them, which gave the twins a satisfying sense of independence.

Emma was the last to be bothered, because she got dressed faster. And because she got super irritable in the mornings. When she came down, the family would eat, and Mum would take the boys to school. Emma then cleaned the table, and Dad washed the dishes, and they would get ready for the day.

After making sure the car was gone, the boys sighed. “We need to finish it today,” Dave said.

“What we need is to stop procrastinating.”

“I wasn’t denying that.”

They snorted at each other. Their project was awesome: a suncatcher. It looked a lot like a dreamcatcher, but instead of having a cute shaped net inside the circle, it had coloured crystal beads that shone and reflected the sunlight. The idea had come to them when they passed by their neighbour’s farm – they had tons of dreamcatchers (what was up with that?). It was still only an idea, though.

Lunchtime came, and the twins hurried to the art class. Their teacher, Miss Loud, was there, as always, giving the final touches to a crayon masterpiece. She let them stay, if they kept quiet. The book girl was there, too. She looked like a ten-year-old, but she studied at their school, so she was probably twelve. She wore her sandy blonde hair in two low pigtails, tied with ribbons. She was always in the class, but never really looked up or talked, so she kind of blended in with the room.

Thomas put their material on the desk. A wooden hoop, some string, the beads, and some thin wire to the design they wanted to make. “And so, it begins.”

“Shut up, I’m trying to concentrate.”, grumbled Dave.

“Do we even know how to make a damn dreamcatcher?”

Something fell with a thud at the back of the room. Dave, who was facing that way, just raised an eyebrow. Thomas, though, had to turn his neck in an awkward angle to look at whatever it was.

It was the book girl, now bookless, smiling widely. She bent over to grab her book back, singing “My time has come!”

Miss Loud tossed them all a warning look, but the girl ignored her and walked up to their table, pulling a chair, and looking like she was going to explode.

“Hello?”, Thomas blinked.

“Hi!”, she beamed, “I couldn’t not hear you talking, and it would be so rude if I didn’t ask… Can I help?”

Dave stared, and stood, eyeing her back.

“Eh, what are you doing?”, she straightened on her chair.

“Just checking”, he slid down again, “but you don’t have wings after all.”

Thomas laughed at the poor girl’s face, which was all pink.

Thomas wiped his eyes, and offered her his best smile, “I’m Thomas Greenwood, he’s Dave.”

Dave saluted, “Hey.”

“Oh, nice to meet you! I’m Al, from Alice Canmore”

“Sweet”, the Greenwoods chorused.

Al smiled, and shook her head, but didn’t comment. Instead, she picked the string and hummed, “You have chosen a good colour and all, but… you have too little string?”

“Oh”, Thomas chuckled, “We won’t make a normal dreamcatcher… It will have those beads instead, on the middle.”

“And if it works”, Dave added, “It will be really neat to hang back at home.”

“It’s for our mum.”

Al raised her eyebrows and put the string back on the table. She was impressed. The boys had been a bit goofy at the beginning but turns out they could be sweet too. Huh.

The children began to work, Al telling them what to do, and the boys trying their best with the beads. They were almost ready, when lunchtime ended. Both guys whined “noooooo!”, and dramatically slouched onto the ground.

“We’ll never finish Mum’s gift!”

“Oh, I can feel the weight of the disappointment!”

Al chuckled, and shook her head. The suncatcher was almost ready. The children had the skeleton of the winged heart they wanted ready, and the only thing they needed to do then was to colour it with the beads and glue it into the hoop, and add the string to make a holder. Maybe a few more minutes, half an hour, would be enough to get it done. She tried cheering her friends up, saying “What if you try doing the rest after school?”

“The thing is that,” Thomas lamented, from the floor, where he was curling up, “We wouldn’t know what to do…”

“Well, you could…”, Al trailed off. She had had an idea, but it would probably get her grounded. On the other hand, the Greenwood boys were nice and fun, and if she were to try and get some, they would be the best choice. It was worth a shot. “You could come over to my house, just for a bit, and I could help you.”

“Seriously?!”, they grinned.

“Of course!”, Al grinned back, “Just remember to let your parents know.”

The boys whooped, and got up, carefully putting their unfinished suncatcher into Dave’s sack, who, surprisingly, affirmed being the most careful out of the two. If Alice doubted, she didn’t let it show.

All of them were late to classes, but luck was on their side, and none of them got called out. The children met up at the main gate, where Alice was already waiting. She smiled and waved them over. “Did you get permission to come?”

“Yep! From Dad.”

“Great!”, she sighed, relieved, “Because we need to be quick. Grandma thinks we’re only giving you a ride… We’ll have until she comes back from the market to make it. Got it?”

She had two extremely enthusiastic friends, but no preparation to deal with their energy. Would they always answer like that?

The Greenwood kids didn’t know what they had expected exactly when it came to Al’s grandma, but Mrs Canmore wasn’t it. The woman was tall and slim, and although her hair was all silver, her head was tilted up in such an imposing way, it was impossible not to straighten up. However, when she reached to cup Alice’s cheek, the old woman opened a smile so warm it could melt ice.

The grandma insisted they address to her as Mrs Henna, ushered they inside her car, a red pickup. Sitting and listening to the soft violin music playing – it’s Vivaldi, how could you not know him? – was amazingly comfortable. On the way, they found out the Canmores lived on their street.

“So, you’ve probably seen our house, already!”, Al mused, “It’s the big farm house, with-”

“-all those dreamcatchers?”, finished the twins, surprised. What were the odds that their strange neighbour was Alice?

Their discovery had a down side, though. Mrs Henna dropped them off by their house, not Al’s, so they had to grab their bikes and cycle all the way to the farm.

“Hurry up!”, the girl whispered urgently, “To the table, quick!”

They worked fast. Alice let them put the beads on the wire, while she took glue duty and made the hook with some lace she had. But the second they shouted in triumph, proud of their creation, Mrs Henna’s car pulled in. Alice let out a tiny squeal, “Oh, no! Go, go, go!”

Dave wrapped their project in a towel Al tossed at him and shoved it in his bag. Thomas was already waiting for him outside, with his bike. They hurried home.

Alice groaned. There was no way her grandma hadn’t seen them. And she was right. The lady was already in the room, arms crossed, stern face on. “Sorry, grandma…”, Alice bit her lip. Oh, she was in for some nasty week of farm work.

“Alice.”

It was all her granny had to say. They had had this conversation enough times by then. She could only apologise. “I know no one should come in, no one can know… But! They needed help, and it was only for some minutes!”

Her grandma sighed, “Darling…”

There was a pause, then, “Okay. But you’ll be the one preparing their protection.”

Alice grinned. She could do that. She could have fun and protect her friends. They wouldn’t know, and it would be okay.


	2. Of Pixies and Homework

Alice Canmore ran upstairs and tossed her school bag on the bed. “No homework!”, she sang. She took off her coat and trainers, grabbed a pair of boots and ran back outside. “Granny, I’m leaving!”

“Where do you think you’re going before doing your homework?” her grandmother inquired, from the kitchen.

Alice stopped by the sink, “I don’t have homework today…”

Henna raised an eyebrow, fishing a sack of oranges up from the groceries bag, “Don’t you have to practice on your translations?”

“I can do it later”, Alice pleaded, “I promised Dave and Thomas I’d be there! Please?”

Her grandmother just sighed, shaking her head. She figured it wasn’t too bad if she came back early. Alice grinned, running outside, to meet up with her friends. She felt a bit bad about skipping study time, but her granny had already told her that Canmore responsibilities have to be a choice, and that she could take her time to decide if she wanted to sign up for that or not, so she felt like she was justified. She was 12 and she wanted to play, that was it. Plus, Dave and Thomas were so much fun!

Predictably, when she came back home at night, to a bath and a bowl of soup, she was so tired that by no means was she able to work on any translation. Her book stayed glued to her shelf, bookmarked just after the first chapter, with her clean practice sheets. She figured she had the whole weekend to do them and jumped right into bed.

She didn’t touch her books.

By the end of the week, Henna was checking her granddaughter’s progress, before going to fetch her from school, and sighed. Alice hadn’t touched her material at all. She wasn’t exactly surprised. After all, she was the one who let her play outside every night… There wasn’t much she could do, she guessed. The role of a Canmore was not an easy one. It was better not to impose it. Plus, Alice was still young, and Henna could still cover for both of them. Her granddaughter deserved to have some freedom while she could. With a determined nod, she put her granddaughter’s book back on the shelf, and got ready to go.

Not a month had gone by and the weight of being born a Canmore was made known to little Alice. She had just stepped outside, when a garden pixie made her a sign.

“Oh, good evening!” she stopped and greeted the pixie, politely. Fairies held grudges like nobody, and they were easy to offend! She needed to talk to them in their language. Alice tried her best to remember the basics: “Wao gohp or dae? (How are you?)”

The pixie smiled, smugly. They were too proud of their gossipy lifestyle, Alice thought to herself, sensing what was about to happen. She was right.

“Ach mur dae rigol! (I have something to tell you)”, she said, in a hushed tone, “übor ahs Fsouldo (about your friends)”

Alice knew what ‘übor’ was: about. And ‘Fsouldo’ was friends. She got curious, “Wir (what)?”

“Ra wosdol mesgon oal Bnup tseb hibol.”

Alice chocked on air. Bnup means blood! She looked down at the pixie with wide eyes and asked her to repeat what she had said, please.

“Ra wosdol mesgon oal Bnup tseb hibol.”

Okay, Alice thought, I’m completely lost! I know ‘bnup’ is blood. And ‘mesgol’… that’s a time thing, right? Tomorrow. Or is it today? Are my friends going to… get hurt? Today?

Alice wanted to ask for more details, but the pixie had already fled to gossip to someone who could appreciate her efforts. The girl frowned. That was bad. As much as they were annoying, pixies never lied. Her friends were going to get hurt, badly, there’s going to be blood, and it was going to happen that same day. It could be happening as she walked! Heart speeding, Alice ran as fast as she could. One of the first lessons on pixies was on how pixies never lied, but the future is malleable. That meant she could stop it from happening! She needed to do something, anything, to save her friends.

Upon arriving at the Greenwoods house, she let herself in, looking all around.

“Alice?”

“What’s wrong?”, Thomas asked, from the sofa.

She blinked, panting. Dave and Thomas were sitting, in front of the TV, eating fruit salad. They were fine! She sighed in relief. “Nothing, nothing… I just. Came running.”

The twins raised their eyebrows to each other, then shrugged. Alice was always kind of weird, after all. They pointed to the fruit salad bowl and told her she should have some. She was still a bit embarrassed for overreacting, so she said nothing and accepted.

Time passed and nothing bad happened. The boys had wanted to go outside to play, but Alice, fearing they would get hurt, insisted they stayed in the house, so they had a videogame competition. Thomas was the winner and earned the right to have the last chips of the bag. Soon, it was dinner time, and Alice had to go home. She hesitated just outside the door, “What are you having for dinner?”

Dave tilted his head, “hm. Veg pizza. Why?”

“Oh, good,” Alice smiled. There would be no need for cutlery. She waved goodbye, “Don’t hurt yourselves!”

Watching his friend go, Dave shook his head, confused. What a strange girl, he thought, and what a weird way to say goodbye.

The next morning, Alice woke up before her alarm went off. She was anxious. She needed to know if her friends were alright. She got ready at lightning speed and sat with her granny to have breakfast. The lady arched an eyebrow but said nothing. Henna thought it to be strange, but she would normally expect her granddaughter to come for her if she ever needed anything. She would give her some space, if that was what she wanted, and wait things out. Alice was smart and could figure out what she needed to do. If not, she already knew to come for help.

The two of them got to work. Alice fed the animals and Henna collected the apples that had matured. Soon, it was time to go to school. Alice was already biting her lip in anticipation. She looked around before getting in the car, but she could not see the twins’ mother’s car in the distance. Had they already left? It didn’t make sense. Alice had to go earlier because her granny had to work, but the Greenwood boys didn’t have to leave until twenty minutes before class started, and only because they lived a bit far off. Had something actually happened the night before? If her friends had got hurt because she couldn’t understand the pixie’s Deipch…

The young Canmore sat still in front of her friends’ classroom. She waited, trying not to think of just every possible bad thing that could have happened: Dave was stung by a bee – he’s allergic… Thomas fell from his bunker bed – he sleeps on the top bed… Finally, ten minutes before the first bell, she heard their voices. Without thinking, she ran to them, hugging them both.

The twins didn’t know how to react. “hum. Alice?”, Thomas called, moving so to see her face, “Are you okay?”

“What do you mean?” she let them go, just to take them by the hands and turn them, “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“We’re fine?” Dave offered.

“Maybe you could explain what’s going on with you?” Thomas frowned, “You’ve been acting weird since yesterday.”

Alice visibly deflated, “I suppose I should.”

With that, she held them by the hands and dragged them to the nearest bench. Taking a deep breath, she begun the story. “Yesterday, I was told something about you. Something to do with blood. I didn’t really understand everything, because I don’t know much Deipch yet… But she said it would be yesterday! And today, when I left home, your mom’s car wasn’t there! I just got so worried! Pixies don’t lie-!”

The twins shared an amused look.

“Pixies?”

“Deipch?”

Alice gasped, going white. She really had just said it! “Never mind! Uh, I meant to say, uh, I dreamt of a pixie. Of course.”, she took a deep breath.

Dave laughed, “Oh my goodness, Al, you had me worried!”

Thomas chuckled, but put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “It wasn’t real, Al, it’s fine. We’re fine. Right?”

Alice sighed, and gave him a little smile, “Of course. That was silly…”

“It’s fine”, they said, together, standing up.

Alice went to take theirs arms, to pull herself to her feet, but the boys winced at the touch. “Oh, so you are hurt!” she yelled.

Dave sighed, “It’s just that you touched the bruise.”

“Bruise!?”

“Yeah,” Thomas told her, “We had to take a blood test today. Our arms are going to be sore for some time...”

Alice had a very intense mental face palm. She was just done with everything. She felt tempted to call her granny and just go back to bed.

“A freaking blood test”, she squinted, “Bnup tseb. Because of course. Of course!”

The twins made concerned faces to each other. What was their friend going on about now? But then, Dave gaped. “Shoot, Al, you had a dream about the future! We did have something to do with blood! A blood exam! But it wasn’t yesterday...”

Thomas raised an eyebrow, “Well, she also said it was a pixie who told her that…”

Dave nodded, “In Deeph, or whatever. And she said she didn’t understand it and yeah! She was right. Pretty cool.”

Alice groaned, “Not cool…” Her friends didn’t know, but there were real threats out there. She wasn’t just being silly. Her granny had trusted her with their safety, and she really didn’t want to fail. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she failed. They were her first friends, but they were just humans, they didn’t understand. They couldn’t know about it, for their own good. She knew that, so sensing she would be in a bad mood all day, she just waved them goodbye and went to class.

Alice couldn’t focus on her studies the rest of the day. She could only think of how stupidly she had been behaving. First, because her granny had already told her pixies never say useful things when they gossip, so she should have known not to pay too much attention. Second, because she had almost told her human friends about pixies, of all things! Fairies were not good company to anyone, much less to clueless, defenceless human children. Third… She hadn’t been studying as much as she should since she met the twins. It’s not that she shouldn’t have friends, as her granny had explained, it’s that she had responsibilities. Plus, if she had studied more, she would have known what the pixie had said in the first place and it would have saved her so much trouble! Gosh, she winced, I need to fix this.

When classes finally ended for the day, she leapt from her seat and ran through the corridors. She had had an idea, and she needed to talk it out with her granny before she forgot! Luckily, Henna had already arrived, so all Alice had to do was jump in, carefully closing the door after herself. “Granny, we need to talk. It’s important.”

“Very well”, her granny smiled at her from the mirror, “What is it?”

Taking a deep breath, more out of habit than nervousness, Alice let it all out. “I haven’t been studying as much as I should. As you know. And that’s bad. I want to learn how to be a good Canmore, I do. But I also want to be with my friends, and… I guess what I need is that you help me… schedule things. Or something. I’m sure I can do both! Plus, the more I learn, the better I can protect them, so it is awesome!”

Henna smiled, turning right to their street. So that was what was bothering her granddaughter! Well, that problem was easy to solve. “We just need to sit down for a bit and make you a calendar. We can split your work into smaller part, if you want to study every day. Or you can go to play some days and study the rest of the week-.”

“I can do that. Study every day, I mean”, Alice nodded, “I can do it. That way I still get to see them just as often!”

“We’ll need to revise your weekly goals, then,” her granny reminded her, “and re-schedule your tests…”

Alice grinned. Her granny was the best! She hugged her from the backseat, “If you’re free now, we could get started. I’ll even go do my chores earlier and translate those phrases you gave me last month!”

Henna laughed, “Why are you so eager?”

Alice sheepishly explained her misadventures, leaving out the part where she almost told her friends about magical creatures. “- and then I got the idea of scheduling it all, which, honestly, is a bit obvious.”

Her granny chuckled, “I’m glad everything was fine at the end.”

“Yep!”

“Well, go change into something more comfortable and bring a paper and some pens. We can start re-scheduling right away.”

Alice ran upstairs to do as her granny had said. Henna pursed her lips in thought. She had decided not to say it, because she had seen how worried her Alice had been, but the whole pixie situation was not even close to what a Canmore really had to deal with. It wasn’t even a problem – as long as they didn’t feel threatened, pixies were pretty much harmless. The dangers of the real world were real dangers. She was proud of Alice’s decision of committing to her heritage, she was, but she would need to tell her soon, if she wants her to succeed.

It didn’t need to be right away, but it had to be soon.

“I’m ready, granny!”

Her granddaughter came downstairs, jumping over the last steps to the ground. She put on the table her first study plan, a pink paper, some coloured pens, and her school tests calendar, along with her Deipch worksheet. “I though I could get started on the translations while you made the new study plan”, she explained, sitting down at the table.

“Good call”, Henna smiled, sitting across her, “Nirp ulr bogallen.”

Alice wrinkled her nose, “‘Url’ is ‘us’, right?”

“Oh, so you still know your pronouns, eh?” Henna smiled, surprised and proud, “Good, I can cross it out of your list.”

“But what did you say, granny?”

“…If you study, you’ll figure it out”

“Grandmaaaa!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> March's chapter!  
> Hope you liked it!


	3. Not everything goes how you plan it

The Greenwood parents both worked at the hospital, the mother as a surgeon, and the father as a nurse. They were hardworking and never missed a workday, but they had both asked for a day off on May 6th and they had it planned to the minute.

For the parents to be able to complete all their tasks for the day, the children would need to cooperate. Not that they didn’t want to. Dave and Thomas, the twins, were into the scheme, and so were the Canmores, their neighbours.

The first part of the plan was to give the parents time to fetch a thousand and one things they ordered for the day. Since it would take the whole morning, Mrs. Canmore had volunteered to drop the children off at school, while the Greenwood adults faked a work meeting.

Mrs. Canmore and Alice pulled up at 8AM exactly and waited for the Greenwood children to come down. Alice was particularly excited because she got to sit in the front, with her grandmother.

When the twins finally came down, each holding one of Emma’s hands, the teens exchanged amused smiles.

“What are you wearing, Em?” Alice asked, as the boys placed their sister’s seat onto place.

“I’m a mermaid!” Emma grinned. “We are going to read our favourite books in class today and Ms. Jackson said we could come in costumes. I wanted to come with my bird dress, but it doesn’t fit anymore… But my favourite book is ‘There are mermaids everywhere’, so it isn’t so bad.”

“That sounds so fun”, Alice replied, holding a chuckle. “I wish we had stuff like that in 7th grade; All we do is sit down and find X’s.”

The twins noisily agreed, “And 8th grade doesn’t get any better”.

As soon as everybody had clicked their seatbelts closed, Mrs. Canmore took off. The travel to town was filled with Mrs. Canmore’s favourite singers doing a Capella versions of pop songs.

Soon, they were parking in front of Rosemary’s Primary School. Thomas helped Emma down and walked her to the gates, where a cheery man welcomed the children. Watching as Emma ran to be with her two best friends, Thomas gave the receptionist Emma’s car seat and explained, “We came with Mrs. Canmore, but my dad will be here to pick Emma up. He will need her seat.”

When Mrs. Canmore had the teens attention, she gave them a conspiratorial smirk. “Now, children, you know you will all come home with me, right?”

“Yes, Mrs. Canmore”, the twins chorused.

“None of that,” she waved a hand in the air, “I’ve told you countless times to call me Henna. You’re Alice’s friends, for goodness sake!”

Alice snickered at her friends, “You should know that by now”

“You’re one to talk,” Thomas showed his tongue, “You still call our mum ‘Mrs. Greenwood’.”

Alice made a face, “I call her Kelly sometimes!”

Dave raised an eyebrow.

“In my head, I do!”

They spent the whole trip to their school bickering, like friends do. Henna remembered them once more to be by the gate as soon as their classes ended. The three hoped down and raced to the gates.

On their way to their classes, Alice turned to her friends, walking backwards, to ask them the most important thing, “So, do you guys already have Em’s gifts?”

Dave put his hand to his heart, “You dare doubt us, noble gentlemen?”

Rolling his eyes, his brother pushed his shoulder. “Yes, we have them. We only need to finish applying the shiny stickers and we’re done.”

“Stickers?” Alice tilted her head, “What are you making?”

“Mermaids, of course. Of clay.”

Dave nodded gravely, “Emma’s going through that phase where girls stop liking pink, so now she likes everything blue. And Purple.”

“We had to repaint the poor mermaids,” Thomas continued, “But we didn’t have blue glitter, and Emma deserves only the most glamourous mermaids.”

“We’re the world’s best brothers,” Dave said, as if there was no doubt.

Alice knew he was probably right, ego and everything.

“So, Al,” Thomas called, carefully pushing her to the right to avoid a bench, “What did you prepare? Have you finished? You said you started two weeks ago.”

Alice, giving up on walking backwards, fell into pace with her friends, smiling, proud of her project. “I’ve already finished, I only need to wrap it. Remember that bird dress Em likes?”

“The one she outgrew, from Nepal?”

“Yes, well, I talked to your mum and asked to see it. Em likes it so much…”

The boys’ curiosity spiked. Alice was a natural artist – her farm house was surrounded by dreamcatchers and suncatchers (dreamcatchers made with beads that reflected light), and her room was full of her projects: clay cats, owl plushies, secret drawers, and many little weapons in little sheaths hanging from her bed headboard. She was endlessly creative. No wonder they met in the art club room.

Before Alice could explain what exactly she had planned, however, the bell to the first class rang, and the teens had to run to their classes.

At the last bell ring, the halls were full of students. Some grumpily moving to their remedial classes, some happily following the crowds to the gates. Alice was one of them. 8th graders had a later lunch time, so she hadn’t been able to brag about her awesome gift idea to her friends at all during the school day. She couldn’t wait.

Dave and Thomas rushed out of the building at the same time Alice’s grandma parked outside. The three ran to the car together.

“How was your day, children?”

“It was good, Mrs. Canmore,” said Thomas, “Miss Loud, our art teacher, even let us stay there during lunch so we could work on Emma’s gifts.”

“It’s Henna, Thomas,” the woman tutted.

The boy only grinned, Dave mirroring him by his side.

“I had an okay day,” Alice said, “But Mr. Grace was in a bad mood today and made us copy a whole text to our notebooks!”

“Oh, yeah,” Dave groaned, “He had us do the same.”

“Mai said it was because his son had to be taken to the hospital last night,” Thomas explained.

“Oh. I hope he is doing well,” Alice frowned. Mr. Grace had showed her class some of his son’s photos the year before, when he was born. He was so cute and small.

Henna drove them out of the city, dropping Alice off at their gate first, because she needed to fetch Emma’s present, then continued the way to the next house, the Greenwoods’. They parked close to the entrance and walked into the house.

Henna and Kelly shared two kisses and a hug, and hurried inside, to the kitchen, talking.

“Oh, Henna, it is so good to have you here! I still need to plate a whole bunch of sandwiches…”

The boys went upstairs to get ready to the party and wrap their clay mermaids up. They passed their father in the hallway.

“I’m going to pick Emma up at school, do you want to come with me?” the man asked.

“I’ll pass. We’re busy”, Dave said. Thomas agreed nodding.

Shrugging, Edson made his way downstairs, to the kitchen.

“Lovely ladies, I’m on my way to fetch Emma”, he announced.

“Already?” his wife whined, “I’m not even dressed yet!”

“Why don’t you go get ready, then,” Henna smiled, “and let me finish the plates?”

“Henna, you’re an angel,” Kelly sighed, thankfully.

The Greenwood couple was shooed out of the kitchen, Kelly to her bedroom, Edson to his car.

The man drove to his daughter’s school, excited. They had been planning her surprise birthday party for quite some time, and it felt good to be doing it already. He parked and got to the gates, waving at the receptionist. “I think there’s a car seat waiting for me and Emma here.”

“Yes, Mr. Greenwood, your son left it with me.” The receptionist disappeared into his little room to retrieve it.

While he was away, Edson saw his daughter playing with her friends and called her to him. Emma came running, arms up, ready to jump into her dad’s arms. Her friends came as well, smiling at him.

“Hello, Emma’s dad!” Charles greeted him.

“Hi, children!” Edson laughed, raising his hand over their heads for a high five.

Arthur, who was taller, was the first to reach it, slapping it high. Emma and Charles did it together, cheering and yelling “teamwork” at the top of their lungs.

Edson told the children to hug goodbye and took Emma’s hand to guide her back to their car. Inside, he adjusted her seat and helped her put her schoolbag in the boot of the car.

“How was your day, sweetpea?”

“It was okay,” Emma replied, “I think it will be better when we get home.”

Edson chuckled, amused, “Why’s that?”

“Because, daddy, it will be my birthday.”

Edson almost looked back to her but held himself back. “What do you mean?”

Emma, who was six that day, and a cheeky one, scoffed at him. “Daddy, last birthday we all sang at school and went to the pool, and everybody was always saying ‘happy birthday’ to me. This year, only the teachers said ‘happy birthday’ to me. I knew something was up right away when Arthur and Charlie didn’t even mention it when they saw me. And they’re the most dramatic people ever. It wasn’t hard to figure out.”

Edson laughed silently. His girl truly was something else. “Maybe we shouldn’t have told them not to mention it…”

“So I will have a party! Yesss!”

Edson watched his daughter do a little wiggly victory dance through the mirror. The surprise didn’t work, but what mattered was that she was happy. They still made the detour to the bakery for some sugar cookies, just so that all the guests had time to arrive at the party.

Right before they got home, Edson sent his wife a text, “We’re coming get ready”. He made Emma hold her hands over her eyes, even if she already knew what was going to happen, and she found it funny to pretend to be surprised. The pair walked in and a loud “Surprise!” welcomed them. Emma ran to her mum and brothers, looking around and seeing all her classmates and friends there, to celebrate her day.

She had lots of fun and got many gifts. Her three favourite ones were two matching clay mermaids with shiny tails, and a bird plushie that looked just like the bird from her dress.

“It’s a Danphe,” explained Alice, “They’re Nepal’s national bird. Your mum said it was your favourite animal, and you were so sad about the dress not fitting anymore that I knew just what to give you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note that Emma was adopted from Nepal when she was one and a half years old. She doesn't remember anything about the country but she loves to hear about it. Her parents bought the dress when they travelled there to meet her, and they bought it bigger so that she could wear it when she got a bit older. It was special to her and she was really upset it got too small for her.  
> Danphe birds are beautiful!


	4. Strawberry lips

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> July's chapter!  
> Next chapter comes out Wednesday, 12th

Emma Greenwood was six already. She was a big girl. She went to school, she learned letters and numbers; she was almost a grown up. Her parents always told her she was super smart, too. But, for all that is good, she couldn’t figure out why her best friend Charlie was crying so much, curled up under the sink in the bathroom next to their class.

“You can tell me, Charlie!” The little girl insisted once more.

Charlie, however, only tightened up his grip on his legs and hid his freckled face further down, sobbing and hiccupping and sniffling. Emma sighed, confused but determined, and tried to fix his sadness with a hug. When that seemed to help, making her friend cuddle with her, Emma sat beside him to hug him properly.

After some time, their best friend Arthur pocked his head in the bathroom.

“Ah, here you are. Oh, what happened?” He frowned, concerned.

“I don’t know,” Emma pouted, “He won’t say… What should we do?”

Arthur was the oldest, and though he had to study in Emma’s class, that had to count for something, so she hoped he would know how to make Charlie happy again. They were both boys; maybe it was a boy thing?

The eight-year-old knelt by the hugging children, awkwardly adjusting his lunch bag straps, and hummed. Then, he smiled big at Emma, his red hair falling on his eyes when he moved to sit down.

“We eat. Then Charlie doesn’t need to say anything, but he’ll feel better.”

Emma gaped at him, as he opened his bag, and wondered why she hadn’t had that idea herself. Arthur was so smart!

Arthur took out a plastic container with a dozen strawberries. He nudged Charlie with it until he took one and nibbled on it, sniffling to clear his nose. He gave such small bites that a bit of the fruit’s juice pooled around his mouth and on his lips.

“Victory!” Emma cheered. She also took a strawberry, and put it whole in her mouth, closing one eye at the slightly sour taste.

“Ha, ha!” Arthur laughed, holding his bitten strawberry out to point at his friend, “Charlie looks like he has lipstick!”

Emma turned to face him, curious, and smiled, “He looks pretty!”

That got a chuckle out of the sullen child. He touched the fruit to his lips to smear some more ‘lipstick’ on and blew kisses. His friends laughed and so did he.

The trio stayed in the bathroom the whole lunch time, laughing, and making faces. They never did find out why Charlie had been crying, but they did fill their bellies until they could eat no more. Curiously, there were still two strawberries when Arthur put away his lunch box.


	5. Mantini are not fairies!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alice needs to rescue a "fairy" from a six-years-old. How hard can that be?

Alice had been studying for almost forty minutes when her friends came to pick her up. Her xeno-subjects were her favourites. Xenobiology, xenohistory and xeno-identification. Her lesson for the day had been on changelings. They weren’t exactly a species on their own, biologically, but they counted as a different group because they had special characteristics that set them apart.

‘Changelings’, her textbook said, ‘are members of the fae who were exchanged by human infants or adults, for various reasons, such as disease, old age, or week blood lines. The fae take those who they wish to leave and place them in cribs, claiming the human child to themselves. The fae they leave are enchanted to look exactly like the human who was taken. It is not always done like that, however, for some fae replace the human baby with an enchanted block of wood or lump of wax.’

It had always interested her, how fae can be living among people without knowledge. It made her sad, though, how humans have treated the poor changelings throughout time, when it was documented how humans rarely wished to leave the fae realm if they had the chance to go there. It was unfair. Plus, changelings are often just sick and weak fae babies; how can humans be so cruel as to hurt them? Alice had read that when humans noticed that the babies laying in their cribs were behaving different from their own babies, they would chuck them in fire or leave them in forests. Just because they cried too much or were sick! And because they wanted their babies back, of course. But one cannot argue with the fae. They cannot process emotions like humans can.

The most frustrating part of studying about it, for the young Canmore, was the lack of information on grown changelings. The records related humans trying to get rid of them to have the fae bring back their human babies, but what happened to the rest? Did no one ever raise the poor abandoned fae children? How could that be?

Although the girl had many questions and wanted to keep reading, Alice had to put away her textbooks and notes before her overexcited friends could decide to come in and get a glimpse into what she studied and suspect of something. She hated feeling like she needed to lie to them. It was better if they never asked; she wouldn’t need to answer!

Making sure to let her grandma know she was going out, Alice left to meet with her best friends. Dave and Thomas, the Greenwood twins, study at her school, one grade above her, and are the best people she ever met. They were waiting for her right in front of her door, playing with a dreamcatcher the Canmore had been gifted a year before by an Ojibwe Canmore who had studied with her grandma.

The boys turn when they hear her come and grin at her with laughter in their eyes and say, “Emma brought a ‘fairy’ home from school today!”

“What?!” Alice coughs, worried. “A _real_ fairy? How? Where?”

“Alice,” Dave rolls his eyes, “it obviously is _not_ real! Fairies don’t exist!”

“It’s a mantis,” Thomas stated. “Mother told us not to tell her, though.”

“And Arthur, as well.”

“Who is Arthur?” Alice asked, breathing deeply to calm her heart. What a scare!

Thomas is the one who gives her the answer, fishing his phone from his pants and showing her the screen. It had a photo from Emma’s six-years-old birthday party. Standing beside the young Greenwood there was a taller child, a red-haired boy. Looking at him, Alice remembered meeting Arthur. She had found it funny that his last name was King.

“He’s visiting, then?” She assumed, her good mood from before returning.

As Dave went on about how often the little boy visited, Alice wondered about what she would do, if her friends had an actual fairy at home. Would she need to let them know about her, what she was? Her grandma had warned her against it. It was dangerous to know about the World, even more so to humans. Humans never played well within their own kind, much less with other species. And though her friends were kind and their family were always gentle with everybody, she didn’t want to risk it.

Danger aside, humans have always had a problem with curiosity, too. She did not need to lose her only friends because they learned about the World and wanted to explore!

The group arrived at the Greenwood’s home. Thomas made sure to remind his friend not to mention that the mantis is not a fairy and took her inside. As soon as the door closed behind the teens, two children came running up to them.

“Alice! Look what we have!” Emma squealed, “A _fairy_!”

Alice, fully expecting to see a mantis, bent to see what the girl had in her cupped hands. However, when Emma opened a gap between her hands, what the Canmore saw was not _completely_ a mantis. It was a female mantini, a half-human half-mantis creature that lived peacefully since the Roman Empire era. They did wreck some havoc in Egypt in ancient times but that is all forgiven.

It was a peaceful species, it fell under the Canmore Protection Act, and it was _right there_ , waving sheepishly at her. Alice _had_ to rescue the poor mantini from the six-years-old human. That did not sound easy.

“What do you think? Isn’t she beautiful?” Emma asked, unaware of her friend’s dilemma.

“Oh, yes,” Alice half-smiled, “She definitely is. Can I, uh, hold her?”

“No, I want to hold her!” Emma brought her hands closer to her chest, “But you can play with Arthur and me and Chelsie, if you want.”

“Chelsie?” Alice repeated, feeling sorry for the mantini. Fortunately for her, the child who captured her lived right beside a Canmore. Alice would have her safe at home in no time. She hoped.

Right then, Kelly, the greenwood’s mother, called her sons to the kitchen.

“Mum, we have guests!” Dave whined back at her.

“It’s fine,” Alice told him. She would take the chance to try and save the mantini. “I can go and play with the children for a while.”

“It could take a long time.” Thomas warned her, already moving towards the kitchen.

Alice smiled at that. Her friends looked like each other’s reflections, but they behaved completely different. “I don’t dislike playing teatime, you know.” To prove her point, the girl put her hands on the children’s backs and started to move them closer to the stairs.

“Yay!” Emma and Arthur cheered as they got a new playmate.

“We’ll be quick” Thomas promised.

While Emma babbled about how to have a tea party the right way, Alice wondered how the little girl and her friend Arthur could see the mantini’s true form. Humans have their eyes naturally closed to the World, save rare exceptions. Could it be that they were still young enough to have a malleable mind? That didn’t sound right, since Emma was already six… But maybe her eyes are taking longer to cover up because she had constant contact with a Canmore. That didn’t explain Arthur’s uncovered eyes. Perhaps he didn’t see the mantini, only the mantis form she had, and went along with Emma’s game because he thinks it is all an imagination game, Alice concluded.

“Sit here, Alice.” Emma pointed to a pillow she had laid on the ground, next to the tea table.

“Alright.” After she sat, Alice helped Emma settle onto her own pillow seat, since she had her hands busy with the mantini. “What kind of tea are we having?”

“Strawberry!” Arthur answered, mixing the pretend tea in the pink plastic pot with a plastic strawberry.

“That... Sound good.”

Arthur served her a little bit of tea, letting the strawberry fall in her cup. “Milk?”

“No, thank you.” The teen politely tasted the pretend tea, humming, “That is very tasty.”

“It is my special recipe,” the boy told her, proudly. “I’m very good with berries.”

“It is true,” Emma said, pouring some of the drink into her cup. “Arthur has a berry garden at home.”

“Oh, so you like gardening?”

“I do,” he confirmed, hanging the tea pot directly above his head and, looking up, letting the tea fall right into his mouth.

Alice was speechless, but Emma thought it was hilarious and broke down laughing. As she did it, her hands relaxed, and the mantini flew out from them, landing on the table. Alice moved to pick her up, but Arthur was faster. The red-haired child gently placed the creature in a teacup.

“Do you want tea, lady?” he asked, already serving her invisible tea.

“Aren’t you soaking her?” Alice asked, since the boy was expecting her to drink from her improvised seat.

Arthur paused, but then shook his head, “It’s okay, fairies don’t drown.”

“Yes, they do,” Emma retorted, “just not in tea.”

The wise words of the young did not impress the Canmore, although the mantini did smile at that.

Seeing the mantini smile made Alice curious. “How did you guys find a fairy, by the way?”

“It was at school,” Arthur explained, vaguely.

Emma nodded to confirm, “Next to our class’s gardens.”

Before Alice could ask for more details, the door opened and Dave popped his head in to tell them, “Mum’s calling us for dinner.”

“But we’re playing!” Emma whined, raising her teacup to prove her statement.

“Yes, and?” Dave raised his eyebrows. “By the way, Alice, mum said you could stay for dinner if you wanted to; She can call your grandmother.”

Alice’s eyes met the mantini’s and she knew that was the chance she had been waiting for. Slowly and deliberately so, she started gathering all the tea party toys. “Thank you, but I think I’ll just go home.”

Seeing the teen tiding up, the children got up and prepared to leave the room.

“Can you make sure she doesn’t fly away, Alice?” Emma asked, before leaving.

Alice bit her lip, “I’ll try, but I don’t know if… she’ll like that.”

“Just let her be,” Arthur told her, taking Emma by the hand, and guiding her out. “She probably wants to go home.”

“That’s sweet of you,” Alice answered, taking that as permission to scoop the mantini out of the teacup and tuck her in her jacket pocket. “I’ll make sure she gets there safely.”

Dave chuckled, “You really act like it is a fairy.”

Alice happily agreed, “It definitely isn’t.”

Walking back home, Alice finally had the chance to talk to the mantini. “I’m sorry about that. What’s your name?”

“I’m Concordia,” the mantini lady said. “Thank you for taking me out of that house, Canmore.”

“Of course,” Alice waved a hand, “It’s what I do. I can take you home tomorrow, early in the morning. Where do you live?”

“The human children found me as I gathered food and flowers. You can leave me there. I know my way.”

“Very well."

Alice remembered she had never gotten a straight answer from her tea partners, so she looked at Concordia and inquired, “How did they manage to capture you, anyway? I didn’t even know Emma was uncovered.”

Concordia gave her a funny look. “It wasn’t the girl who found me first. It was the boy.”


End file.
